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EDTA (Purple)ĮDTA prevents clotting by chelating calcium, an essential component of coagulation. This is the category to consider if you need cells or plasma (a cell-free liquid that still contains coagulation factors). However, some of the serum components are a little less stable in these tubes. They’re mainly used clinically for tests that are needed especially quickly. Although the silica-coated tubes clot within about 30 minutes, the orange tubes clot within 5 minutes.
TUBEEX OR BLUEX ACTIVATOR
Thrombin-based clot activator tubes (orange).If you’re looking for a protein that isn’t involved in coagulation, this is a good place to start. Those without the separating gel are potentially more useful in sensitive diagnostic testing. Some also have a gel to separate the serum. These tubes have silica particles, which activate clotting. Serum (clot activator) tubes (color dependent on brand: BD is commonly gold but also red, Greiner is red).Many of these markers can be stored for days in the fridge, or frozen down and measured in batches later. It can be a good, stable way of measuring the blood’s proteins, lipids, hormones, electrolytes, and so on. Serum is, in simple terms, what remains in the blood after it clots: a cell-free liquid that is also depleted of coagulation factors. The first thing to figure out is whether you are after serum, or whether you’ll need to stop the blood from clotting.ĭon’t get serum confused with plasma-while they’re both the liquid, cell-free part of the blood that can be obtained by centrifugation, the key difference is that serum is the product of blood that has been allowed to clot, while in a plasma sample, the dense cells are simply spun to the bottom. The first thing to check is your protocol-for example, some ELISAs will specify the types of samples you can and can’t use.īut what if your protocol doesn’t specify, or you’re adapting a method from another system, or you just want to make sure you’re storing the best type of sample for future not-yet-defined analyses? Hopefully, I can help you start to find your way around all those differently colored tubes.Ī quick note about those cap colors before we begin: I’ve listed them below, and the color-coding system is generally pretty consistent, but I can’t promise the colors are the same in every company producing blood collection tubes, so always check first! Serum Tubes Whether you’re collecting your samples in-house or through a clinic, hospital, or pathology center, you’ll need to have a good idea of what kind of blood collection tubes suit your purposes.
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Getting Started With Blood Collection Tubes For many basic scientists, the process of getting that blood out of a person and into your project can be intimidating. Maybe you’re studying blood cells using hematology microscopy, or maybe you’re after genetic material or circulating biomarkers. So, you’re designing a project using human blood samples.